Crate



' c. A. STEWART.

CRATE.

APPLICATION HLED FEB- 26, I920.

Patented Mar: 29, 1921.

ATTORNEYS CHARLES sm: sriiwrm'r, or iriGnLANDs, A new yum.

' CRATE.

assen.

To all whom it mag concern v I Be it knownthat I, CHAnLns A; STEWART, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Highlands,; in the county of Ulster and.

Stateof'New York,have invented a new-and improved Crate, ofwhichthezfollowing is;

a full, clear, and exact description; It is well understood that oneof-the most difficult articles'to properly crate is fresh fruit, and particularlyfi'where such fruit is packed in the conventional packing. baskets whichare crowded together into a crate for the purpose of shipment;

Even where these baskets have been prop erly crated, the crate itself isa very cumbersome object to. handle, and due to the haste and carelessness of expressmen, the crates are liable to'be carelesslypacked in a freight car so-that certain of the same are lying sidewise',-;others are properly placedja'nd still others are placed upon their top ends;

With the above in-view I have constructed a-crate which isintendedfOr thepacking ofwtruit, and more particularly adapted to receive the individual baskets of the same, commonly known as grape baskets. A crate constructed in accordance-with'my invention permits of a packing of grape baskets in a particularly compact vmanner, whereby a minimum of space is utilized and the packing crates are not subjected to as rough a handling as is the case with larger recep tacles. v

A still further object of my invention is the construction of aerate which will provide a handle to facilitate the handling thereof, and which handle will at all times serve to prevent danger of the cratesbeing placed wrong side up as is now the case.

Further objects of the invention are the construction of a crate of unusual simplicity permitting of extreme economy in manufacture, as Well as other objects which will become more apparent upon an examination of the subsequent specification and appended drawings, which latter represent practical embodiments of my invention, and in which I p Figure 1 is anelevational view of one form of crate constructed in accordance with my invention. 1 r g Fig. 2 is a sectionalside view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a sectional plan View there-.

through. I

Fig. 4 illustrates a secondform of crate v 'ispecific'at'ion of Letters Patent. 7 Patent- 5d E13 1, 1. 921; Application-filed February 26,1920. SeriaINO. 361,535.

constructed in accordance with my invention, iandfiisza sectional side 'view' there- .through- F1g..5 1s aplan view'ot the same. In all of; these-views 'llke reference numerals designate similarpartsand the refer-- ence numeral-6 indicatesslde planks, to the sections 7,-each forming two parts, as has been' indlcated by the. reference numeral 8 in Fig. 1. Baskets such as 9-are arranged" in pairs, one on top of the other, the next ends of which are attached top and bottom over and under lying pair of baskets extend ingetransversely to the intermediate pair by means of which, as has been clearlyindicated inlFig. 2, the handles 10.01 each pair of baskets extend upwardly between the next overlying pair. By virtue of thesplit portion or slot 8 formed between the half sec tions' of the upper and lower endsfof the crate, the handles of. the'uppermost pairof baskets are permitted to extend beyond the upper end} of the crate thusservingasa handle tor the-latter. As has been clearly shown in Figjg certain portions ofthe ends of the basketswof each row overliefone 'an-' other, and these present aneat and'compact portion entirely filling out the space between the side member 6 of the crate.

It. will benoted upon examination, that the crate illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 is of extreme simple construction in that the same includes merely eight parts and it will readilybe apparentthat a crate oi this nature is primarily constructed with a complete lower end portion, three side planks 6, and one of the upper end portions 7. In other words, one of the side planks 6 and the portions 7 of the upper end of the crate to which it is attached are removed. A pair of baskets is now arranged upon the lower end of the crate, and 7 further pairs properly positioned in the manner afore described, placed upon the same, care being/taken that the uppermost palr of baskets 9 arearranged with their tops View of providing this construction I have formed a crate in the manner illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 in which oppositely disposed side planks 6 are attached to one another adjacent their upper and lower ends, by

pairs of spaced slats 11. 'The second pair of opposed side planks are attached to the} body of the crate by top and bottom pieces 12, which have their inner ends securedto position bearing against the inner faceof one of the slats 11, and the removed 'side plank and its associatedtop piece 12 are now moved into applied position, so that the baskets are held withinthe body of. the

crate; v

' Obviously, numerous modified structures of crate might'be made without departing from the scope of my invention, in that a pair of spaced members are provided in both of-the ends of the crate so that the handles of the uppermost pairof baskets may project through the space'ithus afforded, and serve as a handle for the crate. In this connection it is to be borne in mind that an extremely simple form of construction is provided by. means of my invention in that it"is merely necessary to remove one of the side planks and top portions of the crate, which may thereupon be filled and to subsequently apply the removed portions of the crate to the body of the same.

I claim: 1. A crate, including two units, one of said units comprising side planks, and'a plurality of end sections, the second unit including a side plank-and an end section, said crate being adapted to receive baskets formed with handles, said baskets being adapted to be arranged upon one another,

the end section; of the ,second' unit being adapted to be spaced from one of the end sectionsof the first named unit, whereby to provide a {slot throughwhich Y the handles of the uppermost baskets may project to provide a handle-for the crate,and means for securing the units forming said: crate in applied Position; ,i i

2. Aerate comprising twosections re movably joined together,=one of said sections including a base,a'pluralitysof up right planks rigidlysecured'to the base and a top section s'upported on the upper ends of said planks, the" other sectionicomprising a single plank adapted to be rigidly secured at its lower end tothe base, a top section rigidly connected to the plank and adapted to beconnected to the'upper ends and to extend transversely of each other, i

of the first-mentionedplanlmin'spaced re- 1 lationship to the first-mentioned topsection, whereby a slot is providedbetweenthe adjacent edges ofthe top sections adapted to accommodate the upwardly extended handles of containers located inthe crate.

- onARLEs ALVIN- STEWART. v 

